1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic circuit unit which is mounted in a vehicle such as an automotive vehicle and connectable to an external circuit via a plurality of wires.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, many electronic circuit units each provided with a circuit board fitted with an electronic circuit and a board connector for connecting wires for external connection to conductors for connection on this circuit board are known as electronic circuit units to be mounted in vehicles. Further, a so-called card edge connector to be mounted on an edge part of the circuit board is known as the board connector.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-112682 below discloses a connector provided with terminals 92 provided on ends of a plurality of wires, a terminal-side housing 94 for holding these terminals 92, and a board-side housing 98 fixed to an edge part of a circuit board 96 as shown in FIG. 23.
Each terminal 92 includes a resilient contact piece 93 resiliently displaceable in a thickness direction of the circuit board 96. This resilient contact piece 93 is resiliently displaced by receiving a reaction force from a surface of the circuit board 96 when coming into contact with this surface and pressed into contact with the conductor for connection on this surface by a resilient restoring force thereof.
The terminal-side housing 94 holds the terminals 92 in such an arrangement that the resilient contact pieces 93 of the respective terminals 92 sandwich the circuit board 96 from both sides of the circuit board 96 and a plurality of terminals 92 are juxtaposed along a width direction of the circuit board 96. The board-side housing 98 is shaped to be able to receive the terminal-side housing 94 and locks the terminal-side housing 94 at a position where the resilient contact pieces 93 of the respective terminals 92 are held in contact with the conductors for connection of the circuit board 96.
In an electronic circuit unit using the connector 90, the miniaturization and structure simplification of the entire electronic circuit unit are difficult. Specifically, the connector 90 requires the terminal-side housing 94 for holding the plurality of terminals 92 and the board-side housing 98 for locking the terminal-side housing 94 to the circuit board 96. Further, the circuit board is housed in a predetermined case, but this case has to house the connector 90 to be mounted on the circuit board 96 in addition to the circuit board 96 and is enlarged by that much.
To solve the above problem, the present invention aims to provide an electronic circuit unit which includes a circuit board, a case for housing the circuit board and a plurality of terminals for external connection and can be miniaturized and simplified in structure.